Adult Search Engine Controversy
The settlement of issues concerning internet censorship in the US is long overdue. In many different countries today, certain organizations, moralists or religious society compel the government to facilitate internet censorship. Moreover, the extent of censorship varies among different countries. Some allow minor censorship while others can go to the extreme where news is blocked out and discussions are suppressed.
Factions of pro-internet censorship and anti-censorship groups are at war, especially in the US. Talks, debates and discussions on how and what should be kept under the radar on the web is an continuing process. There are political, moral and social issues that can be affected if and when internet censorship is fully implemented.
In an article regarding the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, Gregory Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology commented on how the bill is loosely worded and seems to represent a threat to freedom of speech. If
his allegation is true, this would clearly contradict the First Amendment of the US Constitution which protects the citizen’s freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition for grievances.
Some politicians in the US, specifically the 19 Senators who voted for internet censorship have been praised and insulted at the same time by those who are for and against the bill. Some of these 19 Senators are known to oppose internet censorship in other countries but not in the US, thus, critics suggest that this may just be their way of pleasing their largest campaign contributors. They are described on internet websites as “people who are famous for doing something dumb” and are included in the “list of shame” of some people in discussions and forums about this issue. There are so many arguments on this bill that needs to be settled, but the people who want to resolve this need to understand what is at stake.
What is the Government’s Purpose?
Let’s put it in a more simplified approach. The main objectives included in the Internet Censorship Bill, better known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or Protect IP Act (PIPA) are:
- To prevent any threat or theft to economic creativity by regulating the sites and their contents (e.g. shutting down websites that are either “suspected” or found to contain copyrighted materials) and protect intellectual property rights.
- To block adult-related topics (e.g. pornography, sex, violence, politics, business, sports and news) found on different adult search engines which according to the government pose intimidation and discrimination.
The Bill Acts as a Pacifier
Here’s a list of potential effects of these objectives to help you gain an understanding on how the Internet Censorship Bill could affect the online community:
- It gives the government the authority to ban all or portion of the ONLY broadcast communication system which is not politically-controlled (for now) without due process.
- It disables or limits the services of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Search Engines which can affect basically anyone in the online
community. - It threatens the people’s right to free speech (as covered in the First Amendment of the US Constitution).
- It allows the government to cut off funds from websites by compelling the advertisers and payment services to cancel their accounts.
- The government also has the power to sue search engines like Google, Yahoo and Youtube and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, or any site for that matter that they feel is not filtering copy-righted materials well enough.
- It posts greater threat to the security and stability of Domain Name System (DNS), thus it introduces potential censorship abuse.
- It makes the internet less reliable.
The bill definitely intends for adult-related contents to be removed or inhibited but the government doesn’t know how this could affect the economy. There has been lot of research and statistics showing the impact of the adult industry in terms of revenue, traffic and trends. A study of different universities in Des Moines, Iowa revealed that 74% of movie and image searches involved adult-related contents and only 3% were non-adult related. Furthermore, the revenue from the adult industry in the internet was found to exceed the combined revenues of three television networks from 2005 to 2006. Statistics also showed that 372 individuals are typing adult topics into search engines every second. The amount of traffic generated from these adult content searches is illustrated in the graph below:
The People have Spoken…
The internet is considered the most powerful tool anyone could have. If it is censored in many different ways, through what other means could people like us express ourselves without being controlled by the government? Some critics further imply that the government’s main agenda hidden in this bill is to silence critics and protect their own political interests. This statement might just be true, since the internet has become the backbone of major protests and rallies around the world. However, politicians should remember that the people who voted for them trust that the nation’s interests will be taken into account with any bill or law they implement.
As of today, the attention of most people is currently drawn into the Internet Censorship Bill. Based on the articles, discussions and forums that I’ve read, the online community (which includes media, businessmen, students, employees, among others) is not pleased at all. We have to face the fact that it is now at the brink of becoming an actual law if no one would speak up against it. If the time comes that this bill is passed into law, controversial political issues such as this won’t even be mentioned regardless of how many millions of results Google, Yahoo, AOL or Bing can provide.
Category: Adult Porn
